{"id":603613,"date":"2026-04-13T07:16:21","date_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:16:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/603613\/"},"modified":"2026-04-13T07:16:21","modified_gmt":"2026-04-13T07:16:21","slug":"national-medal-for-backyard-astronomer-chris-stockdale-who-helped-discover-100-exoplanets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/603613\/","title":{"rendered":"National medal for backyard astronomer Chris Stockdale who helped discover 100 exoplanets"},"content":{"rendered":"

From a small observatory in Victoria’s east, Chris Stockdale spends his nights watching for something most people would never notice, the faintest flicker of light from stars hundreds of light years away.<\/p>\n

It’s the kind of work that sounds like science fiction, but for this Gippsland astronomer, it has become routine \u2014 a careful hunt for planets orbiting other suns.<\/p>\n

It’s a side hustle for Mr Stockdale that began in the 1960s.<\/p>\n

“I got into astronomy because of the Apollo program at the time and the Moon landings,” he said.<\/p>\n

“And also there were a couple of bright comets and I remember my father getting me up at 4am to have a look at these comets that were in the sky and it was really good.<\/p>\n

“I’ve maintained an interest ever since.”\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Stockdale hunts for planets inside his impressive backyard observatory. (ABC News: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

That childhood fascination eventually turned into something more.<\/p>\n

Inside the backyard dome<\/p>\n

Mr Stockdale now operates a fully automated telescope system from a observatory in his Churchill backyard, capturing data from distant star fields.<\/p>\n

The set-up includes a 320-millimetre telescope mounted on a precision tracking system, designed to stay locked onto a single patch of sky for hours at a time.<\/p>\n

From that data, Mr Stockdale is looking for something extremely specific \u2014 a tiny dip in a star’s brightness as a planet passes in front of it.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Stockdale says he was “over the moon” to be recognised for his work. (ABC News: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

“It was a case of which star caused the actual dip in the light that was associated with a planet crossing in front of the star, as we would see it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“Just a small dip, which was typically half a per cent or 1 per cent, so not very much.”<\/p>\n

Those faint changes in light are the key to finding exoplanets<\/a> \u2014 worlds orbiting stars far beyond our solar system.<\/p>\n

It is work that has propelled him into global collaborations, including NASA-linked projects, helping confirm potential planets identified by space-based surveys.<\/p>\n

“And so through that cooperation, through that group, is how I identify,” he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Stockdale keeps detailed records of his discoveries. (ABC News: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

The astronomical analysis<\/p>\n

Mr Stockdale has contributed to more than 100 scientific papers and helped confirm up to 100 exoplanets.<\/p>\n

Yet he is quick to emphasise the collaborative nature of the work.<\/p>\n

“There’s many people involved in actually doing the discovery and I’m sort of one of the cogs in the wheel,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Stockdale verifies predicted targets from the ground, working through long lists of candidates that require precise timing.<\/p>\n

“There’s actually this large list of the candidates and when they’ll be observable at my location,” he said.<\/p>\n

When conditions are right, he captures light curves and graphs that reveal subtle changes in brightness.<\/p>\n

“I do analysis to tease out the dip or assign it so I know it’s another star over there which could be an eclipsing binary as an example,” he said.<\/p>\n

Some nights the signal is clear. Other times the process becomes a long puzzle.<\/p>\n

“I could spend another eight or 10 hours actually looking for what’s going on,” he said.\"A<\/p>\n

Chris Stockdale was awarded the medal for codiscovering more than 100 exoplanets. (ABC News: Jack Colantuono)<\/p>\n

Page medal recipient<\/p>\n

Mr Stockdale’s work has now been formally recognised by the Astronomical Society of Australia (ASA), which recently awarded him the 2026 Berenice and Arthur Page Medal.<\/p>\n

“It makes me incredibly proud and honoured to have received it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“I was sort of over the moon, literally.”\"A<\/p>\n

Tanya Hill says Chris Stockdale’s contribution to astronomy earned him the national medal. (Supplied: Scienceworks, Museums Victoria)<\/p>\n

ASA representative and resident astronomer at Melbourne’s Scienceworks Tanya Hill said the recognition reflected just how critical Mr Stockdale’s work had become to modern space science.<\/p>\n

“It’s a way for professional astronomers to really celebrate and highlight the incredible work that’s being done by amateur astronomers,” Dr Hill said.<\/p>\n

“And in particular with Chris, not only has he been able to confirm so many planets, he’s co-author of a nature paper which is a pinnacle for research astronomers themselves.<\/p>\n

“And I know when the committee realised that and saw the fantastic endorsements that he had from the collaborations with the professional astronomers, it was clear that Chris was definitely a great recipient for the medal.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"From a small observatory in Victoria’s east, Chris Stockdale spends his nights watching for something most people would…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":603614,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[305,64,63,293974,293973,24383,129,4935,2569,128,285,1974,15759],"class_list":["post-603613","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-science","tag-astronomy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-berenice-and-arthur-page-medal","tag-chris-stockdale","tag-comets","tag-earth","tag-moon","tag-planets","tag-science","tag-space","tag-stars","tag-telescope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603613","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=603613"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/603613\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/603614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=603613"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=603613"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=603613"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}